Wednesday, August 29, 2012

"How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You."

Buying books by the title only.

"HOW TO TELL IF YOUR CAT IS PLOTTING TO KILL YOU."

How can I resist?

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We wore out our channel changer. I'm not sure if that's a good thing. I mean, other people wear out their changers, right? uh, right?

Anyway, actually being able to press a button and have it do what it's supposed to do is an unexpectedly smooth pleasure.

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I know this won't be a popular opinion, but Bend Roots Revival does have to pay attention to zoning laws.

In other words, you DO have to pay attention to your neighbors.

It's crowd bully behavior otherwise, which is why we have laws protecting minorities -- and individuals. Personally, I think Nosler could have bit the bullet -- heh, heh -- and let the the festival go on.

But I'm just saying that I've felt a whiff of that crowd bully behavior about the downtown festivals, that I should just take the street closures whether I like them or not, because it is what the majority want.

One of the reasons Oregon is such a pleasant place to live is because of our zoning and land use laws.

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5 comments:

Unknown said...

I am in agreement with you to a point on the Roots Festival, but I think overall Bend city planning for where they zone, how they zone it, and where they decide to butt residential right up against major traffic areas...well...to quote my friend Juan from El Paso, "It looks like it was built by a drunken Mexican."

Downtown and Century Center I'll let go. There have been established homes and families near those, and I completely agree with you on your belief that the events downtown hurt business...I see those sidewalks and the last thing I want to do is try to fight my way into a store.

The one that chaps my ass though is Les Schwab Ampitheater. Concerts have to be done early at Bend's only major outdoor venue? The neighbors who's homes didn't exist for the most part prior to Les Schwab going in are complaining? Well sorry to say but tough titty.

I've worked most my life in event production and media, and I find my biggest enemy is often the general public who feel that beyond a shadow of a doubt their lone rights are more important than 1000+ people that can show up to these events. Bend should have done something about this long ago, but instead tend to focus on city beautification projects and dead-in-the-water projects like Juniper Ridge, than fixing already broken infrastructure. Next time Bend if you are putting in a venue for live audio be sure that you put it in a location and with enough regulatory stipulations in place that new-Bend-ers' won't have room to complain and ruin one of my favorite parts of Bend when I lived there: the live music.

Duncan McGeary said...

The irony being, though, that the concerts were put in there to promote the sales of condo's and such.

H. Bruce Miller said...

"We wore out our channel changer."

You are the living definition of "couch potato."

H. Bruce Miller said...

"Concerts have to be done early at Bend's only major outdoor venue? The neighbors who's homes didn't exist for the most part prior to Les Schwab going in are complaining? Well sorry to say but tough titty."

Tough titty to YOU, Jack, if you can't party at outdoor concerts until midnight or 1 a.m. or 4 a.m. or whatever. I mean, boo-fuckin-hoo.

Believe it or not, many people in this town have to work. And you're full of crap when you claim that most of the homes within earshot of The Schwab were built after it was. The Old Town neighborhood has been there since the 1900s. If I can hear the noise -- excuse me, "music" -- from The Schwab at my place (five miles away in southeast Bend) it must be damn near deafening there.

Duncan McGeary said...

Hey, I actually change the channel...that takes effort.